biography
| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1909–74)
|
| biography:
| Physician and anaesthesiologist, born in Westfield, New Jersey, USA. Best known for pioneering work in anaesthesia relating to childbirth, she developed the Apgar Score to evaluate newborns (1952). She also created the first department of anaesthesiology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (1938–49), where she was the first woman to head both a department and to hold a full professorship in anaesthesiology (1949). Her deepening interest in maternal and child health eventually led to an executive position with the National Foundation–March of Dimes (1959), where she spent the rest of her life fostering public support for birth-defect research. With her fundraising ability, the annual income of the National Foundation increased from $19 million to $46 million by the time of her death. She also made birth defects an academic sub-speciality at Cornell University Medical College, where she taught (1965–73). Author of numerous papers, she was a much admired teacher most appreciated for her humanitarian qualities. |
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